Saturday night was my Annual Holiday Party with the Costa Mesa Crew. The party is definitely getting bigger (compared to last year) with two new kids joining the party this year, and the announcement of another. Robin graciously hosted the party again, while i cooked up two versions of Pot Roast, a traditional one with gravy, and another Asian styled one. Unbeknownst to me, was that I basically made Beef Noodle Soup, without the noodles.

Robin made his famous pecan tarts, and a big batch of mussels. Shane and Joann made some spinach and artichoke dip, and mac and cheese. Jen and Andy made the mashed potatoes, while Tiffany and Ben brought some roasted vegetables and some lemon curd cupcakes.

It was fun watching the kids of the same ages interact with each other, and play without too much supervision. Can’t wait until next year when Alice will be a year old and get to play too instead of hanging out on our shoulders all night.

Last weekend was Joy’s quarterly dinner with her friends. With Joy being a bit incapacitated with the belly and all we kept our cooking to a minimum. I thought making deviled eggs would be easy and fun to make since i’ve never done it before.

I went with a basic recipe and thought i would spice it up with a little bacon, but too bad i forgot the bacon but they still turned out delicious. I tried to reduce the amount of mayo in the recipe, but found that it really did need the full amount to make the egg creamier. The main course was hotpot soup with lot of other finger foods to snack on as well.

The group welcomed another offspring to the group, and another couple announced their impending arrival as well at the party. The group is multiplying faster than i can count at this point.

Here are all the kids names at the point:

Saturday evening we had our 2nd dinner party with Joy’s friends at Emily’s house. The group is growing so we need big locations to hold every everyone’s growing family. Its always fun to get together to share stories and the newborns, and joke about how tired everyone is now a days. There was so much food to enjoy and i like how different but similar in the types of food that we ate that night.

We don’t really have themes for her parties because we’re the only ones who really make anything. This time around i tried my first attempt at making grilled pork skewers moo ping (not to be confused with satays). Moo Ping tend to be a little sweeter in flavor and isn’t served with peanut sauce.

Joy focused on dessert and went with the traditional way of making Mango Sticky Rice. We’ve both tried the microwave version and have failed miserably so this time Joy went with the steamer and it came out pretty close to perfect.

I’m pretty happy that we’ve been able to get to the 3rd dinner party for the Costa Mesa gang. The summer event was a Asian Street Food Night, which was a good mixture of food from all of our home countries. We gathered once again at Robin’s house which i dubbed the Sun Hawker Centre as all the foods stalls are called in Singapore.

Joy made some Khao Mun Gai, and I ended up making some Luk Ching Ping (grilled meatballs). Robin’s sister and brother in-law made some Singaporean Laksa, Ben brought over some of his mom’s homemade Lumpia, Pork Belly Gua Bao from Robin, and Mango Sticky Rice from Andy and Jen. We finished it all off with some fresh made boba milk tea, and huge tub of coconut ice cream.

After our first holiday dinner party with friends we said that we had to do it again. Of course organizing multiple families to find a date that is free for everyone is pretty difficult, so it happened that it took until April to get together again.

I wanted to try out making out a porchetta again so i made it an Italian theme. I roasted a 3lb roast with 3lbs of pork belly for a few hours and it came out delicious. I wasn’t sure if everyone was going to be ok just going at it with their hands so i also bought some rolls, arugula, and grilled onions to make some sandwiches. Robin made a spicy sausage pasta, Jimmy bought some pasta from Costco, Teresa made some fruit tarts, and of course Tiffany made more desserts of Nutella Cookies, and Strawberry Italian Ice.

Besides Jimmy being new to the dinner, we also got to meet Lailani, Andy and Jen’s newborn baby. Andy texted me all day to make sure the dinner was still happening because he was going to man up and take the kid out all by himself. Jen had to work the night shift so Andy was all on his own and he did a pretty good job and i think he got a few bites of food in before he had to attend to the awake baby.

I had to cut my time at the dinner short, because i had to catch a flight to New York at 11:30pm. I can’t wait for the next one in the summer.

December weekends get filled up so fast with various holiday parties i had to book my very own the first weekend of December. Its one of those sad realizations during the year when you notice that you haven’t seen certain people for an entire year and so it was time to get together with the old Costa Mesa Roommates for a feast.

With a few new additions and another on its way we had to have it at Robin’s spacious recently completed house. I asked everyone to bring something to eat and i’m so proud that everyone actually cooked something and the only thing store bought were the crescent rolls. (which i found out not many people have had before!)

For the main course Robin cooked a beautiful 10lb coffee crusted prime rib, along with pecan tartlets, . Joy and i made corn chowder, mashed sweet potatoes and macarons. Ben and Tiffany made cornish game hens, a lemon tart, chocolate pudding. Shane and Joann made bbq riblets and cheesy potato hash. Jon and Janelle made fried rice. Andy and Jennifer made baked fried chicken and veggies.

The kids even had a table to themselves and were pretty good (and quiet) while they ate. I think Noah has a new found love of Crescent Rolls along with Milo Milk.

Lots of wine was consumed and stories shared and its always makes me thankful for December get togethers as a reason to see everyone again. Weekends throughout the year seem never free with endless birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and kid things that we’re having to plan fake holidays as a reason to get together now.